Skirting Boards
StylesSkirting Board Names vary throughout the world. Ultimately the style you choose is
your own. When constructing your house, be sure to choose a baseboard which is not dominated by the height of the
room, as this will look out of proportion. Conversely an extremely ornate and large skirtingboard will only look
good in an ornate environment with complementing architraves and cornices.

TIP: Some of the larger skirting boards simply are not available any more, so a neat trick is to
stack an ornate architrave or smaller skirting on top of a dressed rectangular timber of similar
thickness...Done.

Alternatively you can get a timber joinery or skilled carpenter to machine any profile you
want.

Baseboard styles are as varied as the houses they adorn. Period style skirting boards tended to
be very ornate and elaborate. They look great with appropriate colours, wallcoverings and furnishings, but can be
laborious to paint and keep clean.

Modern skirting boards are sleek, simple and elegant. Some architcts and designers
even specify simple aluminium strips or angles as baseboards. Alternatively a shadow-line effect is achieved by a
plastic moulding and the skilled hands of a plasterer.

Below is a gallery of skirtingboard / baseboard styles and
ideas.

Period style skirtingboards. Now thats a
statement!

A plinth block can be used to facilitate the join between
skirting and architrave.

Baseboard external corner treatment using a
"soldier".Sorry about the fuzzy photo, is was taken oon my
camera phone.

Elaborate skirting boards with painted moulding or
quad.

Baseboards with moulding. This is done when Timber floors
have been retrofitted.

Half splayed skirting board (during
installation, which shows a wedge used to keep height correct and a profiled corner join).